"DUST THOU ART."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1034, 25 January 1911, Page 8

"DUST THOU ART."

THE MECHANISM OF LIFE. ■ At a recently meeting of-tho'-Ronton Society. Dr. W. Deane Butcher, editor of the "Archives of tlio Rontgen.Eay," gave an address on the subject of "Osmotic CirowtlTand tho Mechanism of Life."- By osmotic ' growth ' is moant the growth purely, of.-mineral substances, without (lie intervention of germs or even of radio activity, and proceeding' by means of pressure—tho same' pressure','"'said' fir Butcher, as that wjiieli forced, tho blade of grass through tho sod and lifted tho sap to the topmost twig of the tree. Very little work has been doiw upon this subject m England, and tlio chief: piotieer in these investigations, which may vet .throw a great deal of light'if not'on the origin, at any rate on the mechanism of life, is Professor Leduc, of' Nantes, with whom.-Dr. Butcher has beeiv'c'ollaborating. ■ -Dr. •Butcher took, up Huxley's familiar parablo of. tho pieco ol chalk. Huxley slibwed that the inert chalk was composed of-matter in. which- formerly there had been a veritable ■ riot- of life. But latter-day science, said Dr. Butcher, went further. It triught. that not only had that piece of chalk "lived" in the past —in the form of the diatoms, etc., which now formed its seemingly dead components— but that it might "live" again in the future. The inanimate lump of chalk was not dead but sleeping Ii it' were dissolved in acid and. treated so as to produce oxide, and were dropped into a solution of silicate of soda which also had been sterilised by" heat, the chalk would "grow," and assume extraordinary forms resembling those of organic life before their very eyes. He' carried out this experiment at 'the meeting by means of tlio projection lantern, dropping a-piece of burnt chalk into a solution of silicate of soda.' Within' a few moments'it began to sprout. What appeared to'be in forni and structure the branch of a tree shot up with a series of jerks," and on reaching a less dense solution of the silicate of .soda it put out twigs and leaves. Extraordinary structures, of which Dr. Butcher showed a great variety, were obtained by the use' oi various minerals in solution, some ol them approximating in shapo to a mushroom, others, when nitrate was placed in solution, appearing as a 'curious spiny projection, others again hardly to be distinguished from a sea-shell. The iiving thing, said Dr. Butcher drew its energy from tho dust' and returned it to tho dust again. A great deal has been said about germs, but germs onhplayed tho part of. Prince ..to the Sleeping Beauty, waking the force and vitality which were already in the dust, thou-h frozen in a dreamless trance. It was .curious how ancient literatures and religious ~ beliefs coincided in sayin» that man was made from tho dust of the ground. Probably,the idea was more essentially true than had been reali"d hitherto,. It found tho. highest expres SlOll, of course, in the story of Genesisand, again, there was a suggestion of 'it m the words of Jesus: "God is ablo of, theso stones to raise up children unto Abraham." It was in tho stones—i.e., the mineral dust—that they sought tlio' enorgy which explained the How of life But. as to the Why of life, they wcro iii no better condition than tho prophet of old who said, "Tho Spirit of God moved upon the face of tho waters."